Update: Ampatuan Sr. and 126 others charged with murder.
Someone very much involved in the 2010 elections said Buluan vice Mayor Ismael “Toto” Mangudadatu is agreeable to shaking hands with the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan for the sake of peace in Maguindanao.
Mangudadatu’s wife, Jenalyn, his sister, and some relatives were among the more than 57 killed in the Nov. 23 massacre allegedly perpetrated by the Mangudadatus in a fierce rivalry for the control of the province, the second poorest in the country. Thirty of those killed were journalists, who accompanied Mangudadatus’ wife who was to file her husband’s certificate of candidacy for mayor.
Andal Ampatuan, Jr, mayor of Datu Unsay in Maguindanao , has been identified by witnesses as the one who led the massacre. He has been charged with several counts of murder and is detained at the National Bureau of Investigation.
Ampatuan Sr. is in a military hospital in Davao City; his sons Datu Zaldy, Datu Anwar and Datu Sajid are detained in General Santos City with his son-in-law Datu Akmad Ampatuan Sr., husband of eldest daughter Rebecca.